political potpourri

The Toronto GlobeandMail: Harboring Attack Dogs?

The Toronto Globe and Mail prides itself as “Canada National Newspaper” and as one editor told me “a forum and forge for new ideas and viewpoints”. So it is with some surprise that Wednesday June 11th 2008 edition of the GlobeandMail had an article in the Report on Business by columnist Neil Reynolds that looked …

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Eliot Spitzer Six : Sex in the City

The NYTimes which broke the Eliot Spitzer story is doing  wrap up coverage here. What is notable about what the NYTimes deems “fit to print” are the following: 1) The prosecution of the Prostitution Ring and four of its owners is going forward; 2)The other “Johns” appear to have dodged  the indictment bullet so far; …

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Eliot Spitzer V: Five Ramifications

From the Eliot Spitzer case there are five other major ramifications: 1)The NYTimes certainly cannot be accused of treating Democrats with kid gloves. 2)The vice-presidential choices of the two presidential contenders will be watched with much greater interest. 3)The US is certainly not European in its sexual morality. 4)The news media are certainly moving along …

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Eliot Spitzer IV : David Letterman on Whoring

Last night on David Letterman Tonight Show David crossed the line. Apparently if you intimate going out with hookers or hint of whoring around then it may be okay to do it. But certainly such “nudge, nudge, wink, winking” appears to allow you to be judge, jury and executioner on others who may do it. …

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William F Buckley Jr.

William F Buckley Jr. died this past month at the age of 82. Buckley was the aristocratic, cultured spokesman for Conservatism in the US for the past half century. His National Review championed almost obsessively Conservative causes. Here is what Time Magazine had to say in its Appreciation: “He could get things completely wrong – …

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Doing the Right Thing in Ontario

Here is a searing example of how divisive religion has become in the politics of the day, especially in North America. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced this week that he was considering alternating other major faith’s prayers with the Lord’s Prayer that opens each session of parliament. The Premier argued that because Ontario and Canada …

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Greedy Guts Itself: The Fallout Update

Greedy Guts Itself has had widespread consequences – collateral damage that was  either not anticipated or, more likely, simply ignored by the round-up of Usual Suspects like an Anthony Mozilo, the Quants and every Big US Bank and its CEO that has foreign Sovereign Funds as new large shareholders. This section will track the spread …

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Hero Used, Humbled

It is stark and unrelenting. Call it collateral damage. Greek tragedy. Yet like Confessions of an Economic Hitman, it is vulgar.  I speak of the humbling of Colin Powell whose reputation has been wholly tarnished by himself and by the “Commander” he served. Read not so much the article but the following commentary on this story of who …

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Billary or Obama

The Democrats have a tough choice coming up beyond Super Tuesday. Will it be Billary or Obama? Now I have deliberately taken this inflammatory designation of Hillary’s campaign for reasons discussed immediately below. But first some full disclosure. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are huge steps ahead of whatever comes out of the Republican Primary …

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Bill “the Hitman” Clinton and TagTeam Friends

BillClinton over the past 2-4 years had built up a stellar reputation for statesmanship and  non-divisive politics.  Item, Bill had worked not once but twice with President George Bush Sr on the Tsunami  Aid Fund and then on the Katrina Aid campaign. Bill had even praised the  relationship and decried on Charlie Rose’s TV program …

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Democracy “Fever”

The ill-fated Iraq incursion and subsequent fiasco may be the source of more widespread problems than instability in the Mid East. Remember the neoconservatives (take a look here for a caustic appraisal of US neoconservatives)were promising that preventitive incursions like Iraq would not only root out malicious regimes but also present the opportunity to “create …

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Tibet, Taiwan, China, and Suzerainty

Beijing has been lecturing Western governments on their support for exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama. US President Bush, while on one hand condemning Congress for its efforts to state that Ottoman Turks were responsible for the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians at the start of the 20th century, at the same time gave Tibet’s …

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